A full-face-type helmet has been well known. This helmet includes a full-face-type head protecting cap portion worn by the rider of a motor cycle or the like on his head to protect the head, a shield plate capable of opening/closing a window opening formed in the front surface of the head protecting cap portion to oppose the portion between the forehead and chin of the helmet wearer, and chin straps attached to the head protecting cap portion. According to such a full-face-type helmet, the substantially entire head of the helmet wearer can be protected by the head protecting cap portion.
The conventional full-face-type helmet having the above structure, however, is not easy to wear on and remove from the head of the wearer because the head protecting cap portion is naturally also of a full-face type. According to recent full-face-type helmets, to improve the stability of the helmets and feeling of wearing them during a drive, the lower end portion of the head protecting cap portion is narrowed. In addition, it fits the head and face of the wearer more tightly due to blockish inside pads for the cheeks and the like. Owing to this structure, when a helmet wearer, e.g., the rider of a motor cycle, has a traffic accident, e.g., a motor cycle accident, a person who takes care of the rider needs a large force to remove the full-face-type head protecting cap portion from the head of the helmet wearer. For this reason, it is considerably difficult for one person to remove the helmet from the wearer.
This will be described below with reference to FIG. 16. FIG. 16 shows an experiment aimed at measuring the force required to remove a full-face-type helmet 1. A bolt 4 with a ring is attached to the top portion of a full-face-type head protecting cap portion 3 of the conventional full-face-type helmet 1 worn on the head of a helmet wearer 2. The lower end of a spring balancer 5 is coupled to the bolt 4.
In the state shown in FIG. 16 (the chin straps (not shown) were unfastened from the chin of the helmet wearer 2), the upper end of the spring balancer 5 was pulled upward. In this case, when a pair of blockish inside pads for the right and left cheeks were attached to the interior of the head protecting cap portion 3, the helmet 1 could not be removed until a tension of 16 kg was applied to the top portion of the head protecting cap portion 3. In contrast to this, when the pair of blockish inside pads for the right and left cheeks were detached from the interior of the head protecting cap portion 3, the helmet 1 could be removed by applying only a tension of 2.5 kg to the top portion of the head protecting cap portion 3.
The experiment shown in FIG. 16 revealed that a large force was usually required to remove the full-face-type helmet 1, and that not so large force was required to remove the full-face-type helmet 1 when the blockish inside pads for the cheeks were detached from the interior of the head protecting cap portion 3.
On the basis of the results of the experiment shown in FIG. 16, the present applicant previously proposed the invention disclosed in U.S. Pre-grant Publication No. 2007/271688 Al (to be referred to as “the prior patent reference” hereinafter). According to the invention disclosed in the prior patent reference, when the rider of the motor cycle or the like wears the above-described full-face-type helmet, in order to at least partly pull out the blockish inside pads for the right and left cheeks from the interior of the head protecting cap portion, a pair of right and left pad-pull members, having pulling means exposed to the outer surfaces of the blockish inside pads, are respectively attached to the blockish inside pads for the right and left cheeks. According to the helmet of the prior patent reference, at least one blockish inside pad is attached to the head protecting cap portion with a plurality of recess-projection fitting mechanisms. The plurality of recess-projection fitting mechanisms include one male hook disposed on at least one blockish inside pad side and a female hook disposed on the head protecting cap portion side to be able to recess-projection fit with the male hook. Also, each pad-pull member has an intruding portion capable of intruding between the male hook and the female hook which recess-projection fits with the male hook, and the pulling means. By pulling the pulling means, the intruding portion intrudes between the male hook and female hook to disengage them from each other. Also, the intruding portion catches the male hook to pull it to the outside of the head protecting cap portion at least halfway, so that at least one blockish inside pad is taken out from the interior of the head protecting cap portion at least partly.
In the helmet of the prior patent reference, however, the intruding portion of the comparatively large-sized pad-pull member must be interposed between an impact-on-the-chin-and-cheek absorbing liner and the blockish inside pad for the cheek. This interposing operation is cumbersome. Unless the intruding portion is interposed correctly to intrude between the male hook and female hook reliably, the blockish inside pad cannot be taken out from the interior of the head protecting cap portion easily and reliably.